Dutch politician urges Jews to 'emigrate to US or Israel'

Prominent Dutch politician Frits Bolkestein sparked an uproar in the Netherlands by saying practicing Jews had “no future here, and should emigrate to the US or Israel,”
French newspaper Le Monde reported Tuesday.

In the recently released book "The Decay; Jews in a Rudderless Netherlands" by Manfred Gerstenfeld, chairman of the Board of Fellows at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, the former European Commissioner and ex-leader of Holland's ruling rightist VVD party is quoted as saying there is no future for Orthodox Jews in Holland because of "the anti-Semitism among Dutchmen of Moroccan descent, whose numbers keep growing."

He added that the increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the Netherlands over the past decade had led him to have limited confidence in the government's ability to fight anti-Semitism.

Bolkestein also said he was "pessimistic regarding the never-ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict that feeds anti-Semitism."

The Dutch parliament is expected to hold a special session to discuss Bolkestein's remarks.

Geert Wilders, the leader of the anti-Islam Party for Freedom, reacted by saying that “not Jews should emigrate, but anti-Semitic Moroccans.”